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Friday, January 10, 2014

In Context: Billy Budd

Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

Billy Budd runs at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House from February 7—13. Context is everything, so get even closer to Glyndebourne Festival Opera's spectacular production with this curated selection of articles, videos, and original blog pieces related to the show. For those of you who've already seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.Before the Show
Visit these links for a quick introduction to the composer, the work, and the production.

SynopsisOn Billy Budd(Glyndebourne.com)
Familiarize yourself with the story of Billy Budd before the show (click on the "Synopsis" tab).

What a fabulous production of this wonderful opera. The singing and acting were superb and the orchestra gave a wonderful reading of this powerful score. Not to be missed by any fan of opera or Britten or just good theater.

For BAM I think the real message was that of one of the folks attending with me -- he said I really like seeing Opera is this space. This person sees "tons" of opera at the Met and formerly NYC Opera but the BAM Opera House really made the evening. I work at the Met and hear opera all day -- I loved this performance from beginning to end AND the intimacy of BAM Opera House cannot be denied.

We have subscriptions to the Met as well as add to that several operas we "just can't miss." This production of Billy Budd stands out as one of the most successfully completely realized opera productions we have seen. Memorable! My husband has been studying the score while listening to the music so we were both familiar with the opera. The acting, singing, staging and orchestra made the opera come to bittersweet life. It will be hard to picture the characters in Billy Budd any way other than as portrayed by the singer/actors in this production. The sets and lighting created magic. Yeah BAM for bringing us such a production!

I witnessed a stunning ensemble production, intelligently acted, beautifully sung with the supportof a brilliant orchestra. Michael Grandage's production set a high mark on the "royal battleship",emphasizing the cruel social inequities the crew had to endure. Thanks to Britten and Glyndebourne for it all and thanks to the BAM ushers for responding to my seat problem - my only complaint being the incredibly uncomfortable seats. I happily watched and listened to the glorious Britten music in the last part of the opera in comfortable chairs thanks to the thoughtfulness of the BAM ushering staff.

The production was top notch, the singing very good and the orchestra outstanding. I loved it all, with the exception I always have at BAM: nothing EVER starts on time here. Coming from CT as I do, the 10 minute delay can mean waiting an hour at Grand Central very late at night. Makes me come to BAM less than I would if I could count on 8pm meaning 8pm.

I enjoyed the production very much, but found Act 1 a tad confusing. However a superb Act II and III made up for this. Thank you for presenting this marvelous opera and so very many other great productions! FK

I guess I'm in the minority because I didn't enjoy the music. I felt the narrative dragged. It didn't help that the mezzanine was stifling and made it difficult to stay awake. The production values were excellent as well as the singing. But the opera simple doesn't touch me.

I am an opera lover, and was completely absorbed by the story, the music, the wrenching psychology of this opera. The singing, the orchestra and the sets were wonderful. Best of all, my husband, who dislikes opera, and my daughter and her friend, who were sceptical accompaniers to this show, were drawn into the music and drama as well. This is my first time visiting BAM and it certainly won't be the last.

Unbelievably wonderful production!!! Thanks to BAM for your artistic integrity of bringing only top notch productions to your venue. Singing, staging, set, acting was terrific. Things you will almost never see in American productions. Why? The mindset is wrong. American companies are too obsessed with selling a product compromising artistic vision. Did anybody notice the curved plank floor? Brilliant device to project a destabilizing aspect right from the onset. Bravo!

I really enjoyed this BAM production. My kvetch is more with the audience - why dont people know how to behave in public? The woman in front of me spent the whole time leaning forward, blocking my view, because the woman in front of her was doing the same. Leaning forward in an opera house is just bad form. Guy next to me cracked his knuckles through the whole production. Guy to the left fidgeted the whole time. Granted the seats are tight & uncomfortable, and the theatre was way too warm, but if you are not used to seeing live theatre, stay home and watch Netflix ...

What an incredible, cast, conductor, orchestra, & production. This was my first time at BAM and my first time seeing a full production of Billy Budd. My only complaint is with the Balcony ushers~they seemed to be pacing back and forth quite a bit, and were insensitive to the most poignant, quiet moments of the opera with the jingling of keys, going in and out the door during intense moments and talking loudly in the hallway. BAM seems to get so much right--surely they can better train their ushers to understand that every moment of the performance is important.

Thrilling performance, a standout among many amazing BAM experiences over the years. We felt especially privileged to be sitting in the first row, suffering with BIlly and the crew. We were so entranced by the music and the production, we forgot to check the weather for our return to CT. We also love the articles and links on your site, good preparation of a dazzling performance.

Stunning production, one of the high points of a long opera-going career. Surpassed two excellent Met performances (1997, 2012) in depth of casting, Grandage's sensitivity to the brutality and humanity of life "upon a Man of War," and, amazingly, orchestral playing, which was forceful and precise, angular, strident, luscious, even sweet, all at the right times. Loved the intimacy and acoustics of the BAM opera house, too, even from the balcony.

One of the greatest opera productions I have ever seen, and revealed to be one of the greatest operas. I had seen Billy Budd at the cavernous Met, but that huge production consisting of an entire ship on stage, did not do justice to the intimate scenes of the story. At the BAM opera house, a smaller venue, the drama of the piece came through in every scene. The direction and set design were brilliant, and always enhanced the dramatic arc of the tale. The singing actors were all at the top of their game. And then there is the opera itself: brilliant, often thrilling music, expressive and always dramatic; the libretto which perfectly translates Melville's tale for the operatic stage. No concessions needed here for the characters or their behavior as is so often the case when viewing an opera based on a 19th Century literary work. Every action, every conflict, every character remains timeless and they speak to us today as powerfully as they must have to Melville when he wrote this and put it away, never to be published in his lifetime. Just tremendous.

Truly breathtaking. From the haunting melodies to the larger-than-life spectacle, I was taken with Billy Budd. It was my first experience with Melleville's storytelling - an absolute convert now. When coupled with Britten's music, reason is seemingly transcended, bringing the audience to a place it is not accustomed: wonderment.

How wonderful to read so many positives, with which I concur. A note on how the superb conducting worked on me last night...Near the end, after Billy has been condemned, and when the stage is dark and desolate, the progression of chord clusters depict the range of emotions that are present on the ship (and in the theater). What a temptation to rush this passage! But the suspended pace extended the anguish in an extraordinary way -- surely Britten intended for us all to suffer the tension along with Billy -- and Vere. I sure did, and I am grateful.

Fantastic production! Shame about the audience though. As an English opera and theatre-goer I was shocked by the level of chatting, yawning, watch-checking, coughing and nodding off around me. Wouldn't get that at Opera North!

All the great stuff that's mentioned above. I thought the supertitles were distracting, as they would be with any performance, situated as they are, as part of the stage. Last night though, they were especially unnecessary; why translate a performance done in English into English?

For me, this is the definitive Billy Budd. I have seen the opera many times, including it's American Premiere in Chicago in the early seventies. In all respects, including the brilliant singing - acting, revelatory conducting of an excellent orchestra, and, the superb realization of all the opera's dramatic possibilities through the direction and staging, the Glyndebourne production has brought to BAM the prize gift to celebrate Benjamin Britten's 100th anniversary. Thank you.

I, too, liked the opera (a first for me) and the staging very much. There's one thing, though, that I wish had been better: The Billy Budd sang well enough (and he was very moving in the moonlight scene in Act II, but admittedly I'm not an expert), but this part really needs a singer with charisma and stage presence (not to say "handsomeness"), and Imbrailo just doesn't cut it. So, there was a void in the production, for me, where there should have been its heart. And a nit to pick: I laughed every time the officers trained their spy glasses into an area that could only be the dark interior of the ship (or the audience), but definitely not the vast ocean, which was in their back. Yes, yes, I know: Opera requires an extraordinary suspension of disbelief, but this is a production that really tries to get across a mood, and every detail matters there, and it came so close...

amazing -more than I could have imagined loved the theater -more than met the opera was absolutely the best Everything about it I have never enjoyed an opera as much as this one!i look forward to hearing Jaques Imbrailo in other operas

Utterly magnificent rendering of Britten's 'Billy Budd.' A heartbreaking but transcendent experience brought alive in our hearts by this brilliant company of singers, players, production people---and a brilliant conductor. No praise for the production is too great. Thank you all.And 'God Bless Billy Budd.'

Gorgeous singing, amazing set, beautiful production, wonderful orchestra. Like many here, my only complaint is environmental. About halfway into the second act (this was last night, Feb 13) the room got really hot and stuffy, so much so that my companion, who has asthma, had trouble breathing. It evened out a little by the end of the performance, but not much. I know there's nothing BAM can do about the uncomfortable seats, but I would hope that temperature control would be a bit more reliable.

The singing was excellent, emotive, The setting was great, stirring particularly as the ship prepared to engage the enemy; In that space one could bring up a good deal of empathy. The press gang system was a major grievance leading up to revolution in 1776. I enjoyed it very much.

What a wonderful opera. I try to hear/see as many different operas as I can.The singing and the music were superb....it made me reflect on how humans are continually persecuting each other.All components of the staging created a believable world. I'm so glad I heard it. I know so little about Britten and this was such a powerful work.

I feel very lucky to have seen this performance, an extraordinary performance of a great opera. Mark Padmore was astonishing, the other singing actors, down to the smallest parts, equally good. In the last few years I have seen three remarkable, very different, opera productions at BAM: Atys, Anna Nicole, and now Billy Budd. All unforgettable. So thanks go to BAM for making these great experiences available for the price of a ticket.

I never thought I'd be able to say that the Met's great John Dexter production of "Billy Budd" had been bettered, but this production really did bring the opera even more vividly to life, particularly in the way it depicted the sheer brutality (and the claustrophobia) of life aboard those old ships. The singing, acting & playing were magnificent. I, too, feel very lucky to have seen it. An unforgettable experience, and well worth the hazardous trip out in a blizzard. However, I must complain about the fact that BAM seats people after the curtain goes up. The entire beautiful and subtle prelude was disrupted for me by latecomers stomping in and then rattling, zipping and fidgeting until they finally settled down. You really need to take your cue from the MET here, and refuse to seat people after the performance begins.